Observe the image. At the work meeting, the man in the purple tie is late due to a car accident, and the man in the red tie thinks that the purple tied man has poor punctuality. Yet, when they switch roles, the purple tied man makes the same judgement about the red tied man. Many have certainly misjudged others. Often, people’s perceptions of others’ behavior are clouded by an unempathetic and egocentric lens. And truly no one is an exception.
Still, it helps to learn about how people behave and function, considering the objective over the subjective.
This past school year, I have been taking AP Psychology, a course that has allowed me to understand the human mind and development, even applying what I learn to my life and observations of others around me. One particular concept that has resonated with me in our most recent unit, is the fundamental attribution error- the tendency for people to overestimate the influence of dispositional or personality traits and underestimate the influence of situational explanations when observing behaviors in others. Easily, people- especially those from more individualistic countries like the United States- find fault in others’ personality versus assessing background factors.
Case in point, I was recently shopping with my mom at a mall, and we met a highschool senior and her mother desperately trying to select a prom dress. My mom, who loves socializing, told the mother that her daughter looked absolutely wonderful in the last dress she fitted. The woman replied, saying that she was scrambling to find a nice dress, and that she appreciated the compliment for her daughter. Seconds later, her daughter came out of the dressing room, sulking, and brushed past us towards her mother, not so much as muttering a “hello.” The daughter gave her mother the dress, crossed her arms, and walked away. Later, when we were seated in the shoe section, my mom commented on how the daughter is rude and not as nice as her poor mother who is trying her best to please her. And thus, the fundamental attribution error is in play.
Realistically, the daughter could be exasperated from the fruitless search for prom dresses, and only acted that way as a means to cope with her feelings of rage and her exhaustion. She typically may not act that way, yet under the stressful circumstances, she acted within a human capacity and demonstrated her feelings in her actions. Regardless of who was in the right or wrong, this situation has indeed contributed to the behavior of both the mother and daughter.
To discover more about the nuances of the fundamental attribution error, I read a 2018 article written by Dr. Saul McLeod, explaining the background and history of this theory. McLeod writes that in 1967, researchers Jones and Harris hypothesized that people would “attribute apparently freely-chosen behaviors to disposition (personality), and apparently chance-directed behaviors to a situation” (2018). The researchers conducted an experiment in which participants listened to anti and pro Fidel Castro speeches, and were requested to rate the pro-Castro attitudes of speakers. It would be revealed to the participants whether those giving the speeches had selected their political position based on personal choice or on the whims of a flipped coin. It was revealed that even with the speakers whose positions were chosen by chance, participants rated the pro-Castro speakers as having a more positive attitude for Castro than those who were anti-Castro, thus suggesting that people cannot see others as simply completing tasks and were inclined to assign a sincere disposition to the speakers (McLeod, 2018).
Even beyond the fundamental attribution error, we are commanded by our own biases. In the example I gave of my mom and I, it was rather interesting that she identified with the mother while I gave the daughter the benefit of the doubt, even with my analysis of the fundamental attribution error. It is probably best to keep in mind that no matter who one meets, regardless of how similar they may be to oneself, that they consider the objective situation before jumping to conclusions about those involved.
Works Cited
Mcleod, Saul. “Fundamental Attribution Error.” Fundamental Attribution Error Simply Psychology, 1 Jan. 1970, https://www.simplypsychology.org/fundamental-attribution.html.